The invention relates to a water continuous edible spread suitable for use on bread, toast, having a low fat content and comprising an oligofructose fibrous material. Preferably, the products of the invention have a low saturated fatty acid content and preferably but not exclusively a total fat content of generally below 40% and in particular below 25%. In particular the invention relates to edible spreads products having a solid fats content of less than 5% and in particular of less than 2% measured at 10.degree. C.
Many attempts have been made to formulate low fat and low solid fat spread products. Spreads products having a low fat content and a high water content often take the form of a water-continuous emulsion. In the formulation of these type of spreads the structure can be provided by the presence of macromolecular products, comprising starches and oligofructoses. The use of oligofructose as a structuring agent in spreads has been described before. JP 267450/90 (Ajinimoto Co. Ltd.) discloses the use of polyfructan as a fat or oil substitute in food products. The polyfructans used are prepared made by the use of conidia of Aspergillus sydowi, incubated with sucrose. The molecular weight of the polyfructan used is far higher than those of inulins synthesized by higher plants.
EP 509 707 discloses low fat spreads containing a combination of water soluble starch, alginate and ion source. Spreads according to this document may optionally contain 1 to 15% of a soluble vegetable fibre. An example of a suitable fibre for this purpose mentioned is inulin marketed under the trade name FIBRULINE.
Japanese patent applications 03/280856 and 03/280857 to Ajinomoto Co disclose spreads prepared by solubilizing certain fructan types in hot water or an aqueous solution of food ingredients, followed by cooling under stirring and allowing to stand as to yield a pasty, sometimes butterlike composition.
A problem with the use of the presently known oligofructose materials is that upon their use in spreads, they sometimes give rise to an undesired sweet off-taste, which is in particular present if relatively high levels of oligofructose materials are used. In the case of water-continuous spreads containing low fat and high fibre levels often the desired plasticity is not present, and/or they are too hard and/or they are too thixotropic. Also they sometimes have a tendency to lose water, sometimes the structure is not quite smooth and may show some graininess and also they may have a tendency to lose structure upon shear. It was also discovered that the appearance of spreads with relatively high levels of oligofructose materials is not always optimal. With the presently known oligofructose materials, a substantial amount, i.e. 15% or more, was to be used if inulin was to be the sole source of structuring material in order to obtain a low fat spread with a margarine-like structure and performance. Furthermore, the inulins commercially available are relatively expensive, resulting in a desire for highly effective structuring inulin products of which their use in smaller amounts provide sufficient structuring.
All these drawbacks make the presently known inulins less suitable for commercial application in spreads.
Several proposals have been made in the past for solving these problems. In European patent application no. 605 019, spreads comprising an aqueous phase comprising more than 15 wt % oligofructoses and 0.1-7 wt % of fat are described to reduce the undesired off-taste. In European patent application no. 596.546 (Unilever), spreads comprising 10-50 wt % of an oligofructose and another biopolymer in an amount between 0.05 and 30 wt % are described. Still another proposal was made in EP 605 020 by using mono- and di-sacchariden in addition to inulin to reduce the undesired sweet off-taste.
Oligofructoses of the inulin type are for example marketed under the trade name Raftiline.TM. and Fibruline.TM.. The commercially available inulins are materials mainly comprising the polymerisation product of the general formula GF.sub.n, wherein G is glucose and F is fructose, and an n value between 2 and 60. The weight average degree of polymerisation (the weight average n+1 value) of these products usually is in the range of 2 to 10.